Efficiency of Sawdust Briquettes as an Alternative Source of Energy for Tobacco Curing in Tabora Urban District, Tabora Region

The growth of tobacco production in Tanzania has become a threat to the woodlands due to the amount of firewood used for curing the crop. This paper examines the efficiency of using sawdust briquettes in curing tobacco. A Bomb Calorimeter was used to determine the calorific value of sawdust briquette and firewood. The grade indices were determined by dividing the value of tobacco in each harvest/reaping per hectare to the weight of dry tobacco per hectare. The grade index produced by each biomass was compared by using t-test to see if they were statistically different. The results indicated that the calorific values of sawdust briquette and firewood were 3133.10 Cal/g and 4218.11Cal/g respectively. The grade indices of tobacco cured by sawdust briquettes and firewood were 1.756 and 2.257 respectively. There was no significant difference at pgreater than0.05 between the quality of tobacco cured by sawdust briquettes and that which was cured by firewood. The heat content within the sawdust briquette was able to remove the amount of water present in green tobacco leaf and the quality of tobacco cured by sawdust briquettes was the same as that cured by firewood.